Saudi Arabia

C

Music and Dance

Traditional Bedouin song styles and melodies are enjoyed throughout Saudi Arabia. Saudi singers are among the most popular in the Arab world, and their works fuel a vibrant recording industry. The recordings of popular Saudi singers such as Mohammad Abdo and Abdul Majid Abdullah are commonly played in many Arab countries. The Jenadriyyah, an annual two-week cultural festival held near Riyadh, features performances of traditional music and dance from around the country, as well as crafts such as weaving and woodworking.

D

Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Organizations

Oil revenues have funded the development of Saudi cultural institutions. The King Abdul-Aziz Historical Center, which opened in Riyadh in 1999, contains facilities for research as well as the National Museum, which houses exhibits depicting the history of Saudi Arabia, the rise of Islam, and the hajj. Local museums are found in towns and cities across the country.

The King Fahd Library in Riyadh, one of the Middle East’s premier research facilities, has one of the largest collections of rare manuscripts on Arabic and Islamic literature and arts. The King Abdul-Aziz Public Library is another major library in Riyadh. Bookstores and libraries can be found in all major Saudi cities. However, religious and political sensitivities govern what texts can be sold or read.

The Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, founded in 1972, sponsors Saudi artists and provides sites to present their works. The society has also established a library, information center, and cultural center in Riyadh. The King Faisal Foundation, founded in 1976, promotes Arab and Islamic culture within the country and abroad. The Riyadh-based organization awards the annual King Faisal International Prizes in the categories of service to Islam, Islamic studies, Arabic literature, medicine, and science. These prizes are among the most prestigious in the Arab world.

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V

Economy

When the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established in 1932 its economy was fragmented and small. People in the Al Ḩijāz cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jiddah derived most of their income from the annual influx of thousands of hajj pilgrims. Coastal settlements on the Red Sea relied on trade and fishing, while those on the Persian Gulf grew dates and other produce. In the central Najd region, economic activity revolved around trade between nomads—who raised camels, sheep, goats, and horses—and settled groups, who grew crops and produced handicrafts. Principal Saudi exports were dates and livestock, and imports included textiles, grains, other foodstuffs, and various manufactured products.

Oil revenue transformed the Saudi economy in the mid-20th century. In addition to bringing tremendous personal wealth to the royal family and their merchant friends, oil money was eventually channeled by government development programs into areas such as transportation, housing, health, education, and defense.

A

Labor

The Saudi government has used oil revenues to expand social services and build roads, schools, telecommunications, and other infrastructural facilities. To carry out these improvements the government hired large numbers of workers and professionals from abroad. Saudis occupy all middle- and upper-level government-service positions, while nearly all clerical workers, laborers, and lower-level service industry workers come from other countries. Professional and technical jobs are split roughly evenly between Saudi citizens and expatriates. According to a 2007 World Bank estimate, the Saudi labor force consisted of 8.7 million workers. In 2002 agriculture employed about 5 percent of the labor force, industry about 21 percent, and services, 74 percent. Women made up only 15 percent of the labor force in 2007, with Saudi women representing a tiny, but growing, portion of this percentage.

As the boom years of oil revenues came to an end in the 1980s, it became clear that the growing foreign labor force was economically unsustainable. The Saudi government began making efforts to reduce the country’s reliance on non-Saudi labor and to increase the number of Saudis in private sector jobs, a policy referred to as Saudi-ization. During this period of Saudi-ization the government cracked down on illegal immigrant labor, threatening to fine employers of illegal immigrants and forcing about 100,000 illegal workers to leave the country. It also began encouraging the private sector to reserve categories of occupations for Saudis and to hire Saudis for existing positions, establishing quotas for employment of Saudis. Despite these efforts, by 2002 the expatriate labor force had reached 5.4 million. Unions and collective bargaining are not permitted in Saudi Arabia.

B

Oil, Natural Gas, and Mining

The oil industry is the most important sector of the Saudi economy. Saudi Arabia’s proven petroleum reserves amount to one-fourth of the world total. The major oil fields are in the eastern part of the country and offshore in the Persian Gulf. Because the country has relatively small internal demand for oil, it exports most of its production. It is the largest exporter of petroleum in the world—in 2002 Saudi Arabia exported about 6 million barrels per day—and has the power to influence world oil prices.

Commercial quantities of oil were discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, but World War II (1939-1945) delayed large-scale exports until the 1950s. Initial exploration and drilling were carried out by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), the operating company of Standard Oil of California (Socal). Several other U.S. oil companies acquired shares in Aramco in 1948. The Saudi government bought a 25 percent share of the company in 1973, then took complete control in 1980, after which the company was called Saudi Aramco. Production rose steadily from about 1.3 million barrels per day in 1960 to 3.8 million barrels per day in 1970. The increased production coupled with rising oil prices, especially in 1973 and 1974, brought huge revenues to the Saudi government. Another rapid increase in revenues followed the Islamic Revolution of Iran (1978-1979), when Saudi Arabia increased production to compensate for the drop in Iranian production, and prices rose due to the uncertain market. Oil prices declined along with world demand for oil during the worldwide economic recession of the early 1980s. In 2004 Saudi Arabia produced 8.8 million barrels of oil per day.

Saudi Arabia began producing natural gas liquids in 1962. In 1982 the first phase of the so-called Master Gas System was put in place. This system was built to capture the natural gas that was released as a by-product of oil production and distribute it to power petrochemical plants, steel factories, and other manufacturing enterprises. By the late 1990s plans were put forward to exploit the kingdom’s other gas fields. In June 2001 Saudi Arabia awarded concessions for the projects to several foreign companies, marking the return of foreign companies for the first time since 1975. In 2003 Saudi Arabia produced 60 billion cu m (2.1 trillion cu ft) of natural gas.

The state-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Company controls Saudi Arabia’s significant nonpetrochemical mineral resources. These other mineral products include limestone, gypsum, marble, clay, and salt. In addition, smaller mining operations extract gold, silver, bauxite, copper, zinc, and iron ore.

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